A Tesla Model 3 crashed in northern Greece on May 25, and with the Autopilot reportedly engaged, making it probably the first Model 3 accident outside North America in the world.

You You Xue, the California-based driver of the Model 3, was taking a road trip with his new electric car having already traveled through 25 countries in six months and covering around 24,000 miles (39,000km).

The driver claims he had Autopilot engaged and traveling at the speed limit (120km/h – 75mph) when the Model 3 suddenly veered right, towards a highway exit without warning. Xue, who admits having one hand at the wheel at the time and not paying full attention on the road, attempted to correct the steering when the front left of the car crashed into the barrier.

“My Autopilot maximum speed was set at approximately 120 km/h (75mph), the speed limit for this highway. The highway was well-marked, well-maintained, and well-lit. The conditions were dry, and there was no traffic around me. The highway was two lanes in each direction, separated by a concrete median. The highway in my direction of travel divided at a fork, with the #2 right lane changing into the exit lane, and the #1 left lane remaining the lane for thru traffic. I was traveling in the #1 lane”, Xue said in a statement on his Facebook page.

“My left hand was grasping the bottom of the steering wheel during the drive, my right hand was resting on my lap. The vehicle showed no signs of difficulty following the road up until this fork. As the gore point began, approximately 8m before the crash barrier and end of the fork, my Model 3 veered suddenly and with great force to the right. I was taking a glance at the navigation on my phone, and was not paying full attention to the road. I was startled by the sudden change in direction of the car, and I attempted to apply additional grip onto the steering wheel in an attempt to correct the steering. This input was too late and although I was only a few inches from clearing the crash barrier, the front left of the vehicle near the wheel well crashed into the right edge of the barrier, resulting in severe damage.”

“I was not harmed in the collision, and no medical attention has been sought. I was wearing my seatbelt before and during the collision. None of the airbags deployed”, Xue added.

The crash resulted in a completely shattered front left wheel, a misaligned front axle and lots of bodywork damage, among other things. A video was posted a few hours after the crash showing the road where it all went down.

Here's the video from the point of impact some 30 hours later (You You, post it on the main page if possible so as the analysis can start, or post your own video):

Tesla has repeatedly said that drivers must keep both hands on the wheel and ready to take over control of the vehicle. In addition, the Tesla Model 3 isn’t yet approved or homologated for driving outside the U.S. and Canada.

Tesla sent a statement to Electrek on the accident, saying: “[…] Tesla does not yet have a presence in Eastern Europe and that there is no connectivity or service available for vehicles there […] Although we haven’t been able to retrieve any data from the vehicle given that the accident occurred in an unsupported area, Tesla has always been clear that the driver must remain responsible for the car at all times when using Autopilot. We’re sorry to hear that this accident occurred, and we’re glad You You is safe.”

You You Xue also said was contacted by a Tesla customer service manager, telling him that the car can be diagnosed in a European service center in Germany -he was previously informed that this couldn’t happen in Europe and that the car must return to the US for a diagnosis.

PHOTO GALLERY

“Tesla Model 3 isn’t yet approved or homologated for driving outside the U.S. and Canada” Wrong, since it’s allowed in the US and Canada, you have the right to drive it for a limited period of time in Europe (tourism, diplomatic reasons, etc).
In any case that’s just another failure of so called “self-driving” cars and Tesla.

ProtectOurHeritage

“I was taking a glance at the navigation on my phone, and was not paying full attention to the road”.

The technology encourages people to take their eyes off the road, so Tesla needs to do something to change that, instead of just advising people that they need to keep two hands on the wheel!

Jay

Yes they should do something about it. Too bad they can’t just remove the feature until it works better..

S3XY

It works 100% as long as you do what it says.

You don’t own a Tesla so you have no idea how it works.

I drove 25 miles on autopilot yesterday and didn’t crash.

It works exactly how its suppose to.

S3XY

No it doesn’t. I just drove 25 miles on autopilot yesterday on the freeway. Hands on the back of my headrest and eyes on the road ahead, ready to grab the wheel.

ProtectOurHeritage

Just because you do it, doesn’t mean everyone will. The actions of these idiots who crash their cars is being watched by the world. It’ll come back to bite all owners with autonomous technology eventually.

Jay

How is it working like it’s supposed to if you are supposed to keep your hands on the wheel? It should force you to keep at least one on the wheel at a time.

DMJ

In an accident like this front and side airbags should deploy.

Sébastien

not really if it wasnt needed (no strong deceleration)

DMJ

The lateral deceleration is huge in this high-speed impacts against medians, driver could have hit the B-pillar hard with his head.

Sébastien

Sure, but it wasn’t enough to make the head touch the steering wheel or anything… Then why deploy the airbags?

DMJ

I’m talking about side airbags.

Sébastien

Still, you don’t need airbags if you slide against something,
Only if something hits you at an angle

DMJ

Do you imagine the forces of impact necessary to ripp a wheel of a car?? Have you seen crash tests and how and when the airbags open?

Sébastien

I did sure, the vector has noting of this accident had nothing to do with crashtests (where it’s at 90° when the pole hit the car, that’s when side airbags get useful…)

pcurve

This one will probably cost $370,000 to repair.

DMJ

And 128 hours of work to assemble a new door. At least they dont have to replace the airbags, as they just dont deploy.

So from now on each Tesla crash will be reported? How many BMW drivers die each day? 100? 1,000? 10,000?

ProtectOurHeritage

BMW drivers crash because of their own actions. The driver of the Tesla crashed because he stupidly thought he could rely on the technology provided with the car.

It is important for Carscoops, and others, to highlight the idiots that buy these cars.

Sébastien

I’m not sure to see the difference between those cases then…
BMW crashes only when people/good around didn’t manage to avoid them

ProtectOurHeritage

People tend to crash their BMWs because they push themselves beyond their capability.

People tend to crash their Teslas because they turn on the autonomous technology and think’ll it do exactly what they want, while they look at their phone.

How are these two things so difficult to understand?

S3XY

Which were his own actions, using autopilot after the car told him not to use it.

His chose to do it, which was his action.

Rofl

ProtectOurHeritage

They may have been his own actions, but it seems to many that Tesla’s technology (and any accompanying instructions) just aren’t good enough. Perhaps it is time that driver testing and licencing is extended to cover this clearly dangerous and difficult to use tech?

ProtectOurHeritage

“All the financial burden cannot be put on one side only”!

Those who are crying out for the technology (i.e. Tesla drivers) should be the ones stumping up the cash.

Yan D

actually, those who are crying out for self driving technology are the 30,000 people in US and more worldwide dying in car accidents every year – caused mostly by driver error. reducing 5 figure per year road deaths is worth investing public funds.

ProtectOurHeritage

Dead people crying out for technology? Really?

People in the US who can’t be educated to drive properly, shouldn’t be allowed to get behind the wheel of a car! Drivers don’t kill people, untrained drivers do. Why should people who can’t safely drive a car with their hands ON the wheel be allowed to “drive” a Tesla hands-off?

Dennis James

Software bugs, which have plagued the IT industry since the beginning and will not go anywhere soon, are now coming to physical fast-moving objects that can kill people. What do you think will happen ? Did anyone think that software bugs do not apply when self-driving cars are involved ?

Jay

Yes people think they will get better from machine learning. I think it will get better too but I don’t think it’s worth it in the meantime. Too bad there’s really nothing we can do about it.

Six_Tymes

spot on truth. but where is fault, who is at fault for putting people at risk? are you suggesting the car companies don’t know about software bugs? their engineers don’t know about software bugs? Of course they do. Take no offence, I am just using what you said “What do you think will happen ” as an example, you are assuming we or many of us didn’t think this would happen, when its the other way around. And why I have been saying for years, companies such as uber is and was using us as Guinea pigs. Almost everyone I know, already knew car companies are doing so, so again, where does fault go? I see clearly whats been happening, fault falls two places, and neither is on the public.

S3XY

There was no software bug. He chose to use autopilot when the car told him not to use it.

Learn to read an article before you post your uniformed thoughts.

Kate E

You know what the worst part is? There are no fail-safe systems. You get hurt or killed instead.

ProtectOurHeritage

Some people think they can use this sort of technology while they do other things, like look at their phone. The driver in the article certainly thought so! I guess people who want autopilot do not like cars or driving and think this sort of technology can help them. They are deluded.

Alfa Giulia QV

See, what did I say? More beta tester autopilot crashes.

And good lord, it’s spreading to other countries. It’s nice to know people here in the states aren’t the only ones doing this.

2sfhim

The driver is American though.

Alfa Giulia QV

So then that means we’re exporting our autopilot crashes then? That just makes it worse.

S3XY

He shipped his car to Europe. The car told him autopilot isn’t rated for outside of the U.S. and Canada and he proceeded to use it. It is his own fault. The car told him not to and he did.

Alfa Giulia QV

Not much difference between the people that use Autopilot here in the states and then take their eyes off the road when they’re told not to do so.

Kate E

Autopilot is autopilot. Maybe they shouldn’t call it Autopilot in the first place.

Jay

That’s not how names work. Companies name things whatever they want. Assuming is human error. Following the instructions is better than basing it off of its name. Its sort of like judging a book by its name.

Silimarina

Because in slow moving traffic is nice to have.It’s less stressful in that situations.There is no fun to drive in slow traffic or on highway

Jay

No offense but that sounds pretty lazy.. but maybe they can make the feature only available in these conditions. Other than that the person would have to be in control.

S3XY

A person took a picture of me yesterday on autopilot with my hands through the pano roof. It’s cool

Strangelove Boom

How is it “cool”? Like it’s cool and ‘hip’ to take pictures of yourself putting your life in the hand’s a faulty human design? Or it’s cool like ‘no worries’ when you’re putting your life in the hands of faulty human design?

BlackPegasus

“Tesla does not yet have a presence in Eastern Europe and that there is no connectivity or service available for vehicles there”
_________
^^ Does this mean Tesla won’t have to ability to perform their own investigation of the crash? Can they confirm that autopilot was indeed engaged as the driver claimed?

ProtectOurHeritage

Eastern Europe? Greece is in Southern Europe. If they don’t understand that, can we rely on their maps? No. Would anyone using their cars, with an ounce of sense, use their autonomous technology? No!

BlackPegasus

🤣 well alrighty then.

Sébastien

Well looking at the video, this section was meant to be driven at max 90kph (and 50kph in the right lane)

Six_Tymes

good point.

Sébastien

why use an auto geabox, just stick shift,
why use a car… just walk,
etc 🙂

Andrew Riles

I’m not excusing the owners of the various Teslas involved in autopilot accidents, but if a car with self driving capability can’t see a truck or swerves into a barrier, is the tech really suitable for use on public roads??

Kate E

To tech companies: yes. By driving the vehicle, you are basically agreeing to be a beta tester. That means you can get killed for the sake of corporate overlords (or technological advancement).

2sfhim

I have experienced several dangerous situations where “self driving” cars were going to crash into people or into railings at high speed if the driver had not reacted. This is what I call failures. Of course the driver is supposed to be in control, and these situations, he was.
But you can bet unexperienced drivers might not be able to react properly and quickly enough, while stupid average people won’t even pay attention to the road and send messages/take selfies/etc while they expect the car to drive itself.

Auf Wiedersehen

ATTENTION ALL TESLA OWNERS: STOP expecting your Tesla to drive itself. You can’t go to sleep, you can’t read a book, you can’t watch a movie. If you want to do those things, take a freakin bus!